Steel City (Towboat, 1926-1941)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Towboat
• BUILT: Point Pleasant, West Virginia, 1926
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Sank at Pittsburgh on June 4, 1941
• OWNERS: Captain Charles T. Campbell (1926); Iron City Sand and Gravel Company (1927); Campbell Transportation Company; Upper Mississippi River Barge Line
• OFFICERS & CREW: August, 1926: Captain Charles A. Gebhardt (master), James Woodward (pilot), Austin Butler (chief engineer); Captain David A. McDonald (master sometime after 1926); Henry Lindenburn (pilot); Gus Butler (chief engineer); Ray Gill (second engineer); Walter Henson (mate); James Leech (striker engineer)
• RIVERS: Mississippi River; Ohio River; Monongahela River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - T2337; Designed by Floyd Alexander, a native of Marietta, Ohio and long with the Marietta Manufacturing Company, she came out new in August, 1926. She towed for Wheeling Steel a short time, then went south with a J. & L. tow, Captain David A. McDonald, master. On this trip, the striker engineer, James Leech, who was the brother-in-law of Charles Campbell, lost two fingers when his left hand was caught in a pump. The Iron City Sand and Gravel Company bought her in May, 1927. Although she towed sand and gravel, she also was chartered out quite a bit of the time to Campbell Transportation Company and others. In April, 1938 her tow went through the wickets at Lock 10, Ohio River. For most of 1939 she was on the upper Mississippi River, working for the Upper Mississippi River Barge Line, under the management of J. C. Goodsell. On June 4, 1941, she was torn away from the Iron City landing in a flash flood and struck a pier of the PRR bridge in the Monongahela River, Pittsburgh, and was lost. Her machinery later went on the sternwheel towboat I. A. O'Shaughnessy